■UNITED STATES
Stamp callers get sex line
People calling a federal telephone number to order duck stamps are instead greeted by a phone-sex line thanks to a printing error the government says would be too expensive to correct. The carrier card for the duck stamp transposes two numbers, so instead of listing 1-800-782-6724, it lists 1-800-872-6724. The first number spells out 1-800-STAMP24, the second 1-800-TRAMP24. People calling that second number are welcomed by “Intimate Connections” and enticed by a husky female voice to “talk only to the girls that turn you on,” for US$1.99 a minute. Duck stamps, which cost US$15 apiece, are required to hunt migratory waterfowl. The government uses nearly all the revenue to buy waterfowl habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Duck stamp sales brought in nearly US$22 million in the 2006-2007 period. This year’s stamps, which feature a pair of northern pintail ducks, went on sale on July 1 and are good through June 30 of next year. The error will not be corrected until next year’s duck stamps are printed. A spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the program, said it would cost US$300,000 to reprint the 3.5 million duck stamps.
■MEXICO
Two Cubans arrested
Two Cubans are being held by Mexican police for their alleged involvement in the beheadings of a dozen men in the Yucatan Peninsula. A Public Safety Department statement says the man and woman were arrested on a beach in Cancun. Police also raided a house, seizing an AK-47, a grenade and ammunition. They acted after questioning three Mexicans detained in the case last week. Public Safety officials declined to provide further details on Thursday, citing the ongoing investigation. The 12 decapitated bodies were found on Aug. 28 outside Merida, the capital of Yucatan state.
■UNITED STATES
Man gets leg back
After being shot five times, a western Nebraska man had to go to court to get his prosthetic leg back from prosecutors. The Box Butte County Attorney’s office gave Val McCabe’s leg back on Wednesday after a judge ordered it returned. McCabe’s prosthetic left leg had been held since Friday’s shooting because prosecutors wanted to run tests on it and a bullet lodged inside. The 58-year-old McCabe, who lost his leg below the knee in a railroad accident roughly 30 years ago, filed his lawsuit on Tuesday. McCabe lawyer argued it wasn’t practical for him to replace the specially built, US$28,000 prosthesis. Police removed the bullet from the leg before returning it. No arrests had been made by Wednesday.
■CHILE
Storm victims rescued
Emergency crews used helicopters on Thursday to rescue some of the nearly 100,000 people hit by the worst rains in three decades in the southern part of the country, where at least four people have died, officials said. A storm has dumped torrential rain on the Araucania region 700km south of Santiago since Saturday, damaging at least 10,000 homes as waters flooded rivers and canals, blocked roadways and inundated 200,000 hectares of farmland. The towns of Carahue, Nueva Imperial, Puerto Saavedra and Teniente Schmidt were all inundated after nearby rivers overflowed. The region was designated a “catastrophe zone” by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who toured some of the worst-hit areas on Wednesday.
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